Foundation garment



Aug. 14, 1956 A. R. LEWIS ET AL FOUNDATION GARMENT Filed Oct. 5, 1953 INVENTORS L udwzg .SZraus; a n d 177%72 ur'R Lezuzs ATTORNEYS United States Patent O FOUNDATION GARMENT Arthur R. Lewis, Scarsdale, N. Y., and Ludwig Strauss, Elkins Park, Pa.

Application October 5, 1953, Serial No. 384,068

3 Claims. (Cl. 2-37) This invention relates to foundation garments and more particularly to such garments made of elastic fabric stretchable in two directions.

Heretofore foundation garments known as two-way stretches lacked the ability to strictly confine the abdominal and sacral regions of the wearers body sufficiently to prevent protuberances while still providing comfort and yieldability in conformation to the wearers proportions in other parts of her body. In addition those portions of the foundation garment covering the abdominal and sacral regions of the wearer had the tendency to ride up on the same portions of the body causing the wearer great discomfort. A further objection to the old conventional type of foundation garment was the failure of the elastic portions which were stretched by the wearer when seated to retain its original shape after use.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a foundation garment which restricts the abdominal and sacral regions of the wearers body while still providing the maximum amount of comfort and freedom of movement.

A further object of the invention is to provide a foundation garment whose novel features will prevent the garment from riding up over the abdominal and sacral regions of the wearers body.

A feature of the invention is the provision of means which eliminate undesirable stretching, after long use in various positions, of those portions of the foundation garment which cover the abdominal and sacral regions of the wearers body.

Another feature of the invention is the provision of a foundation garment having the aforesaid advantages, which nevertheless is simple and economical to manufacture.

Still another feature of the invention is the provision, in the foundation garment of our novel construction, of means which while allowing the garment to stretch and fit the wearer during periods of different fluctuations of weight, nevertheless restrains at all times the abdominal and sacral portions of the wearers body to present a smooth fiat appearance.

With these objects and features in mind, the invention consists of the novel construction and arrangement hereinafter specifically described in connection with the accompanying drawing.

In the drawing:

Figure l is a rear elevation view of the foundation garment according to the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a front elevation view;

Fig. 3 is a sectional view taken in the horizontal plane along lines 3-3 of Fig. 1; and

Fig. 4 is a rear elevation view of a modified form of the present invention.

Referring to Fig. l of the drawings, the foundation garment consists of a tubular body made in the usual fashion of elastic fabric stretching in two directions as indicated by the crossed arrows. This garment is of the conventional type which is made of two panels which are 2,758,310 Patented Aug. 14, 1956 joined together by stitching l1 and 12. In the conventional garment the sacral portions stretch along with the remainder of the garment and do not satisfactorily and completely restrain this portion of the body of the wearer so as to present a smooth fiat appearance. In order to eliminate this objectionable feature while still retaining the advantages of a two-way stretch foundation garment, we have provided two angle-shaped members 13 and 14 which are disposed over the tubular body 10. As shown in the preferred form, the members 13 and 14 are substantially crescent-shaped and are so disposed that the upper leg 15 of one member overlaps the corresponding leg 16 of the other member while the remaining leg 17 of the other member overlaps the corresponding remaining leg 18 of the said one member. It will be understood, of course, that these positions may be reversed. The crescent-shaped members 13 and 14 are, in addition, preferably so disposed that their concave edges 19 and 20 are substantially in engagement with each other at points intermediate the ends of said members and have their inner apex portions 21 and 21 in complete engagement with each other.

The direction of stretch of the angle-shaped or crescentshaped members 13 and 14 is opposed to the direction of stretch of the tubular body 10. As shown in the preferred form, the direction of stretch of the members 13 and 14; is opposite to the direction of the horizontal stretch of the remainder of the tubular body. The result of this construction is that a diagonal pull is provided in the members in their overlapping relation when the garment is being worn and which works against the directions of stretch of the tubular body Tttl causing, as will be understood, the members 13 and 14- to press against that portion of the body, viz. the sacral region, covered by said members and presents a smooth flat appearance.

In addition, the direction of stretch of the member 13 is, because of the overlapping construction, somewhat opposed to the direction of stretch of the other member 14. The action resulting from this construction abets the action of both members 13 and 14 against the body 10 in restraining that portion of the wearers anatomy which is covered by the said members.

Preferably the ends 22, 23, 24 and 25 of each of the angle-shaped members are truncated and secured to the ends 26 and 27 of the body 10. The body is provided with garter attachment means 28 and 29 and the lower extremities of the crescent-shaped members are secured to the edge portion of the tubular body having the garters. As shown in Fig. l, the aforesaid lower extremities of the members 13 and 14 are substantially close to each other along the lower edge 27 of the tubular body.

As shown in the preferred form, the inner engaged apex portions 21 and 21' of the members 13 and 14 meet at a point 3% substantially intermediate the sides of the foundation garment.

It will be noted that greatest pressure is provided against that portion of the body of the wearer which is covered by the point of greatest width 31 of the members 13 and 14.

Referring to Fig. 2 of the drawings which shows the front of the foundation garment of our invention, the overlapping members 32 and 33 are made of the same material, viz. one-way stretch material as the members 13 and 14 of Fig. 1. It is preferred that the upper leg 34 of one member overlaps the corresponding leg 35 of the other member while the remaining leg 36 of the other member overlaps the corresponding remaining leg 37 of the said one member. The concave edges of the substantially crescent-shaped members are also substantially in engagement with each other at points intermediate the ends of said members and have their inner apex portions 38 and 39 in complete engagement with each other.

As shown, it is preferable to have the members 32 and 33 somewhat narrower than the members 13 and 14 and also that the greatest pressure be exerted against the wearers body at the point of greatest width 40 of the members 32 and 33, this point being somewhat higher than the point of greatest width 31 on the rear of the garment as shown in Fig. 1. Obviously the reason for this positioning is that the abdominal portions of the wearers body are higher than the sacral regions.

As shown in the preferred form, the direction of stretch of the members 32 and 33 is diagonal to the direction of stretch of the remainder of the body 10. The result of this construction is that when the foundation garment is being worn, the aforementioned direction of stretch of the members 32 and 33 work against the direction of stretch of the tubular body causing, as will be understood, the members 32 and 33 to press against that portion of the body, viz. the abdominal region covered by said members and presenting a smooth flat appearance. Further, the opposed stretches of each of the members 32 and 33 one against the other permit the garment to retain its shape after long use and abuse.

It will be noted that the lower truncated extremities 41 and 42 of the members 32 and 33 are disposed further apart from each other than the spacing between the lower extremities 24 and 25 of the members 13 and 14 and are located immediately above the garter attachment means 28 and 29 so that when the garters are hooked up, the pull will be directly on the members 32 and 33 in the front portion of the foundation garment adding to the pressing action against the body of the wearer.

As shown in Figs. 1 and 2, the medial lines of the members 13 and 14 and of the members 32 and 33 extend transversely of the axis of the tubular body 10.

In Fig. 4 a modified form of the present invention is shown in which the medial lines of the angle-shaped members 43 and 44, which are constructed in the same fashion and of the same material as the angle-shaped members shown in Fig. 2, extend axially of the tubular body 10. The action of opposing stretches of the angleshaped members 43 and 44, as shown by the directions of the arrows, and against the stretches of the remainder of the foundation garment accomplishes a satisfactory result in restraining the sacral and abdominal regions of the wearers body. This construction also aids in preventing the garment from becoming misshapen after long use and abuse.

It will be obvious to persons skilled in the art that various changes may be made in our foundation garment without departing from the spirit of the invention and therefore there is no limitation intended to what is specifically shown in the drawing and described in the specification, but the right is reserved to all changes and modifications coming within the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A foundation garment comprising a tubular body formed of two-way stretch material; and a pair of revcrsely-tapered angle-shaped members of one-way stretch material, disposed with the apices of their acuteangled edges juxtaposed to each other and with the apices of their obtuse-angled edges remote from each other, said members substantially extending across one complete side of the body and being disposed with their leg portions crossing and in overlapping relation, and the members being secured to said side portion of the body with their leg portions extending diagonally of the body to restrain and control the same along diagonal lines.

2. The invention as described in claim 1 in which the end portions of the members are truncated and disposed in spaced relation to each other.

3. The invention as described in claim 1 in which the leg portions of one member are disposed respectively over and under the leg portions of the other member.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,945,093 Strait Ian. 30, 1934 2,100,890 Witkower Nov. 30, 1937 2,168,009 Van Praag Aug. 1, 1939 2,458,279 Levy Jan. 4, 1949 2,484,440 Witkower Oct. ll, 1949 2,530,132 Silvain Nov. 14, 1950 2,705,799 Frischer Apr. 12, 1955 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,009,973 France Mar. 12, 1952 

